During class, many students were engaged in the lesson, but many were also not fully paying attention. Some things that I noticed were students simply talking, drawing/doodling in their notebook, trying to sleep, and pass notes. What I found interesting though, was how cleaver some of them went about doing so. For an example, my CT had the students do note cards aka "Alpha Cards" which are basically a type of flash cards that they did for homework. The whole set of them were do that day, and many students had questions and problems with them. Because of all the questions they had, she told them that they could hand them in at the end of the day if they need to do so, with no points deducted. Throughout the remainder of class though, many students were passing these "alpha cards" around and helping each other.......or so my CT thought. In reality, they got away with passing notes the whole class period effortlessly because they wrote them on index cards and my CT thought that they were being helpful and helping each other on their note cards. I talked to her later about it, and she was absolutely clueless to the fact that the students were doing that! In another class, 2 girls didn't even bother to write notes, but spent the class talking to each other from across the room. When they were yelled at, they still continued to talk, but more lip read than anything.
As I mentioned, during the class, some students were drawing in their notebooks. One drawing that caught my attention was one that a student with special needs had drawn. This class in particular has a high proportion of special needs students and the class is co-taught with the special ed. teacher. While my CT was describing a physics problem, involving her dropping a ball off a cliff and it hitting the water after 2 seconds, some students were drawing the stick figure interpretation in their notebooks to accompany their notes. I had noticed that this one student was taking at least 30 minutes to draw something, then raised he hand and asked how to spell my CT's name. She smiled and spelled it for him, happy that he was trying to write the word problem along with his picture. When the class went into groups though and the students left their notebooks on their desks, we couldn't help but notice this student's horrible "intrepretation" of the word problem. He drew a picture of the special ed. teacher pushing my CT off the cliff, killing her. He even included the name labels (this was why he asked how to spell her name). So on his paper was no word problem, no formulas, just this picture. It was shocking, but my CT took it almost as a joke and laughed it off (something I wouldn't have done).
Reflection:
I feel as if I would do things differently in my future classroom. The reason for this is because although the majority of the students were paying attention and staying on task, there were some who weren't, and learning can't occur if attention isn't payed. If these same students never pay attention, they will fall further and further behind, so I will take it as my responsibility to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do. Also, the students who weren't paying attention were distracting to at least some of the other students. This is unfair to other students and can lead to an unproductive classroom. I would set different classroom management rules and carry them out more strictly and consistently than my CT does. If I do that, then the students will know the rules and limits, and would hopefully behave better.
In addition, I wouldn't have taken the drawing that the student with special needs drew so lightly. Although he has special needs, and although that it MIGHT have been a joke, I would never want that type of atmosphere in my classroom. I want my classroom to be a safe place. Also, there is nothing proving that the picture could have stemmed from underlying feelings and emotions. I would have talked to him more about it and told him that picture like that are inappropriate, then possibly taken other actions if I felt necessary.
Observation:
During class, many students were engaged in the lesson, but many were also not fully paying attention. Some things that I noticed were students simply talking, drawing/doodling in their notebook, trying to sleep, and pass notes. What I found interesting though, was how cleaver some of them went about doing so. For an example, my CT had the students do note cards aka "Alpha Cards" which are basically a type of flash cards that they did for homework. The whole set of them were do that day, and many students had questions and problems with them. Because of all the questions they had, she told them that they could hand them in at the end of the day if they need to do so, with no points deducted. Throughout the remainder of class though, many students were passing these "alpha cards" around and helping each other.......or so my CT thought. In reality, they got away with passing notes the whole class period effortlessly because they wrote them on index cards and my CT thought that they were being helpful and helping each other on their note cards. I talked to her later about it, and she was absolutely clueless to the fact that the students were doing that! In another class, 2 girls didn't even bother to write notes, but spent the class talking to each other from across the room. When they were yelled at, they still continued to talk, but more lip read than anything.
As I mentioned, during the class, some students were drawing in their notebooks. One drawing that caught my attention was one that a student with special needs had drawn. This class in particular has a high proportion of special needs students and the class is co-taught with the special ed. teacher. While my CT was describing a physics problem, involving her dropping a ball off a cliff and it hitting the water after 2 seconds, some students were drawing the stick figure interpretation in their notebooks to accompany their notes. I had noticed that this one student was taking at least 30 minutes to draw something, then raised he hand and asked how to spell my CT's name. She smiled and spelled it for him, happy that he was trying to write the word problem along with his picture. When the class went into groups though and the students left their notebooks on their desks, we couldn't help but notice this student's horrible "intrepretation" of the word problem. He drew a picture of the special ed. teacher pushing my CT off the cliff, killing her. He even included the name labels (this was why he asked how to spell her name). So on his paper was no word problem, no formulas, just this picture. It was shocking, but my CT took it almost as a joke and laughed it off (something I wouldn't have done).
Reflection:
I feel as if I would do things differently in my future classroom. The reason for this is because although the majority of the students were paying attention and staying on task, there were some who weren't, and learning can't occur if attention isn't payed. If these same students never pay attention, they will fall further and further behind, so I will take it as my responsibility to make sure they are doing what they are supposed to do. Also, the students who weren't paying attention were distracting to at least some of the other students. This is unfair to other students and can lead to an unproductive classroom. I would set different classroom management rules and carry them out more strictly and consistently than my CT does. If I do that, then the students will know the rules and limits, and would hopefully behave better.
In addition, I wouldn't have taken the drawing that the student with special needs drew so lightly. Although he has special needs, and although that it MIGHT have been a joke, I would never want that type of atmosphere in my classroom. I want my classroom to be a safe place. Also, there is nothing proving that the picture could have stemmed from underlying feelings and emotions. I would have talked to him more about it and told him that picture like that are inappropriate, then possibly taken other actions if I felt necessary.